To build or not to build a hackintosh...

[rjstott]

My son, an Apple qualified service manager, suggested I build a Hackintosh last Summer, so I did. It was a challenge and required a lot of reading and re-checking of specs to make sure I got a motherboard that matched all the things I wanted. It was hassle getting the display working with my HDMI TV and it still needs help on each startup to get a stable image.

However, it knocked spots off my iMac so eventually I opened that up and managed to install an SSD but that's about all I could do to improve performance but it works better.

Now I'm thinking about rebuilding and rationalising so I get an HTPC and a Fileserver. So you can see it was fun and I'd do it again and recommend anyone to follow suit as the flexibility is great. The downside is still the spotty, niggles but I'm working on them, like a new TV, not a first generation HDMI one with a single broken HDMI port!!

Suggest you spell out your proposed build as your quoted price does seem high?

 

[Cesarson124]

My Hackintosh has been great to me, it cost me around $900 to build, and boy I love it Maintenance isn't much different than Windows other than reinstalling the sound driver with every OS X update but you can easily solve that with a USB sound card. Everything for me is working just fine here, app store, FaceTime, Messages, sleep, etc. The Mail app on Mavericks is a bit wonky for me (it asks me for a password a couple times during the day), but other than that, it's no different than a real Mac. If you have the time, then I say do it, as that's all you'll pretty much need

 

[Khaurum]

So what I did was add up the price for the CustoMac Pro with 16 Gb ram and mid range specs + the price of a descent screen - and it adds up to just above 1700 $ from the UK amazon store...
okay - I'll have to do some research then - and dig into the details!

what build did you go for for the 900$?

 

[Khaurum]

Customac mATX:
Intel Core i7 4770K Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.50GHz, 8MB, Haswell, 84W, Intel Graphics, BX80646I74770K, 4th Generation Intel Core, Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)
250 £


Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Motherboard (Socket 1150, Z87 Express, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Micro ATX, Haswell, Supports 4thGeneration IntelCore Processors, GIGABYTE UEFI Dual BIOS)
85 £


Corsair CML16GX3M2A1600C10 Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL10 XMP Performance Desktop Memory Kit Black
117 £


NEW! Fractal Design Core 1000 Usb 3.0 Pc Case
82 £


Corsair Builder Series CXM 500W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU
51 £


SanDisk Extreme 120GB SATA 6GB/s 7200rpm 2.5-inch Internal SSD
105 £


Seagate ST31000524AS 3.5 inch 1TB Hard Drive (Serial-ATA, 6Gb/s, 32Mb, 7200RPM)
49 £


TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 N900 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter
26 £


764 £ (amazon)


(EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked ACX 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
208 £)


Prices are found on Amazon.co.uk
Would this be a descent build??
And what screens do people recommend?

 

[rjstott]

Seems a good list. You could leave the Graphics card out to start with and I'd allow about another 100UKP for the miscellaneous bits and pieces such as mouse, keyboard, bluetooth, CPU cooler and perhaps a DVD drive? These days 1TB drives are small and because you lose a SATA port perhaps go with the biggest you feel comfortable with. Not sure about the UK but Amazon made a mistake with some Seagate Barracuda 4TB drives here in France, advertising them as 7200 when they were actually 5900. Resulted in a lot of returns and consequently some 'used' bargains at around 100 Euro. They still are selling Kingston 120GB SSD drives at 67 Euro too.

Best of luck if you go ahead.

 

[Khaurum]

Okay - and how much for a screen would you suspect?

 

[rjstott]

You can pay different amounts for a screen. Depends on size, use and image capability. This is very user subjective and the one key device that you'll see every day. I paid under 200 euro but then the main output for me is to an HDMI TV. At present I wouldn't want resolution higher than 1080p as there isn't a lot of source material at higher resolution and screen technology is still changing?

 

[beerglass]

Hi all

I have just read this thread and sold my late 2012 iMac to build a hackintosh and gaming rig

Same a you.. would this list of kit make a good hackintosh and gaming rig

I will buy 1 x 2TB HDD drive and 2 SSD for windows and OSX ( dual boot )

Can I buy a GTX 770 or limited to a GTX 760. Does it make much difference in what make the card is ?

The other kit is listed below taken from the build guides.

Customac mATX:
Intel Core i7 4770K Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.50GHz, 8MB, Haswell, 84W, Intel Graphics, BX80646I74770K, 4th Generation Intel Core, Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)
250 £


Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Motherboard (Socket 1150, Z87 Express, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Micro ATX, Haswell, Supports 4thGeneration IntelCore Processors, GIGABYTE UEFI Dual BIOS)
85 £


Corsair CML16GX3M2A1600C10 Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL10 XMP Performance Desktop Memory Kit Black
117 £


NEW! Fractal Design Core 1000 Usb 3.0 Pc Case
82 £


Corsair Builder Series CXM 500W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU
51 £


SanDisk Extreme 120GB SATA 6GB/s 7200rpm 2.5-inch Internal SSD
105 £


Seagate ST31000524AS 3.5 inch 1TB Hard Drive (Serial-ATA, 6Gb/s, 32Mb, 7200RPM)
49 £


TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 N900 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter
26 £


764 £ (amazon)


Prices are found on Amazon.co.uk

 

[Cesarson124]

The good thing is that GTX 6xx and 7xx is that they are natively supported by OS X. So you're fine there. If you're going to be using a 1080p screen or higher. Personally, I would go with a higher wattage PSU just in case but
guess other members could disagree Anyways since khaurum was wondering about my build like 10000000 years ago, here it is.

Intel Core i5 3570K (OC to 4.6 GHz)
EVGA GTX 660 Super Clocked [SUB](I might switch it out as it's getting too hot for my tastes... 90c while playing AC4 )
[/SUB]Asrock Z77 PRO3 Mobo
Coolermaster V6 GT
2x4GB sticks Crucial Ballistix Sports 1600Mhz
Toshiba 1TB 7200RPM HDD
Zalman Z11 Plus
LG DVD-RW drive
Diablotek 600 Watt PSU (At first I was a bit worried about this PSU but it's been running fine since last year, hopefully I'm going to buy a modular PSU soon as my cable management is **** )

Everything bought from Microcenter in Long Island, NY except the ram (Got it from Newegg for cheap ^.^)

 

[Khaurum]

Okay - thx for the great tips - is a cooler necessarry with the new CPUs? Doesn't they have a incorporated cooler?